Many businesses and organizations employ one or more business applications, and in some cases, suites of business applications, to provide visibility and control over various aspects of the business. Such “business applications” (or, as they are sometimes called, “enterprise applications”) can include, without limitation, customer relations management (“CRM”) applications, enterprise resource planning (“ERP”) applications, supply chain management applications, and other applications dealing with various finance, accounting, manufacturing, and/or distribution functions, to name but a few examples. Exemplary enterprise application suites include, without limitation, Oracle Fusion, Oracle eBusiness Suite and JD Edwards Enterprise One, all of which are available from Oracle Corporation of Redwood Shores, Calif.
For many of these enterprise/business applications, it would be very useful to be able to provide an effective mechanism to allow users of the system to interact and collaborate with each other. For example, consider the CRM application, which is designed to facilitate the ability of a business to create, develop, and build relationships with its customers or potential customers—with the obvious intent to obtain or increases the business' sales to the customers. In this type of system, it would be very desirable to allow the users to stay informed and collaborate for related business activities and customers/leads.